A team of volunteers from a Knowsley-based social impact business and housing provider got their hands dirty in order to support a community action day in Swanside.
A group of 22 handy Knowsley Housing Trust and First Ark Group employees spent six hours painting, tiling, grass cutting, replacing gutters, trimming trees and hedgerow branches and litter picking at Roby Playing Fields, Roby Hub and Swanside Community Centre.
The clean-up benefitted the local community as hundreds of local residents, including a number of primary schools, sports groups and families use the playing fields every year.
The Community Action Day was organised by Swanside and Roby councillors to tidy-up a local shared green space and two community centres and took place on Tuesday 3 September.
Léann Hearne, Group Chief Executive Officer at First Ark Group, said:
“This initiative brought communities in the area together to help refresh and clear-up local shared spaces used by our residents, who include members of football teams, dog walkers and community groups.
“It’s important for our residents’ health and wellbeing to have access to local green spaces and be able to use a well-maintained local community centre.”
Swanside Councillor and Knowsley Council Leader Cllr Graham Morgan, said:
“We’re grateful to Knowsley Housing Trust and First Ark Group for supporting this event, that we arranged to benefit the local community. Roby Playing Fields, Roby Hub and Swanside Community Centre are all great resources for all residents to use.”
Roby Councillor, Cllr Margaret Harvey, added:
“We were overwhelmed with the response from our valued partner in terms of the number of employees and the donation of materials and a skip. This is an excellent example of collaboration and working better together for our communities.”
All the green waste was be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way, by turning it into compost. Vivark, the Group’s facilities management service, liaised with Reconomy, a provider of outsourced recycling and resource management services, to source a skip to collect this in.
All building materials worth £1,400, including wall tiles, gutter replacements, paint, lights and bollards were funded by a partnership between One Ark, the Group’s investment charity and the Travis Perkins Legacy Fund.